A new musical legacy for Frank Lloyd Wright's father, courtesy of music historian

One thing that’s not disputed about Frank Lloyd Wright’s father is this: He loved music.

Long portrayed as a distant parent and meager breadwinner who abandoned the family when Frank was 17, the senior Wright emerges as a much different character — a cultured and exuberantly creative man who lived a life in music — in the new CD, “The Music of William C. Wright.”

Produced by Oak Park, Ill., music historian and architecture fan David Patterson, the 72-minute CD features pieces composed by Frank Lloyd Wright’s father in a musical career that spanned the second half of the 19th century. Many of those years were spent in Wisconsin, including Madison and Frank’s birthplace of Richland Center...